Environmental permit issued for controversial bulking facility at Abermule
An environmental permit has been issued to Powys County Council to operate a controversial bulking facility for non-hazardous waste at Abermule.
The permit was issued on Monday, 31 July after Natural Resources Wales (NRW) determined that the application met regulatory requirements.
Powys County Council re-applied to NRW for a permit in June 2022 after their previous application was refused by the environmental regulator in March 2022.
Local residents had previously raised concern about fire suppression measures at the site and unacceptable odour levels.
The permit will allow the site to accept and process up to 22,500 tonnes of non-hazardous waste annually. A maximum of 425 tonnes would be kept on site at any one time.
NRW’s determination process included a full technical assessment, two public consultations and numerous requests to the applicant for more information.
Local environment
Ann Weedy, NRW’s Mid Wales Operations Manager said, “We are confident that the proposals in the application meet the necessary standards to operate the site without damaging the local environment.
“Our officers have worked diligently and conscientiously to assess this application, and I am grateful to them for their hard work.
“This application process has had a great deal of interest and concern locally, and I want to reassure the community of Abermule that issuing the permit is not the end our regulatory involvement.
“As with any other permitted site, the bulking facility will be periodically inspected to ensure that the conditions of the permit are met. We have powers to request improvements where necessary.”
The only permitted treatment activity on the site is the bulking up of materials. Materials received on site will be segregated before arrival and will therefore not require any manual sorting or separation.
Bulking up entails gathering smaller quantities of a material into a larger quantity which make is easier and more efficient to transport and process elsewhere.
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“NRW’s determination process included a full technical assessment, two public consultations and numerous requests to the applicant for more information.”
But once the applicant had paid enough people off, the public were ignored….
No Cathy this is more likely to be a case of one bit of public sector failing to oversee the activities of another bit of the sector. There may be a bit of mutual nose bagging but it’s the tolerance of slackening of standards that pose the bigger threat